moving dunes by NÓS is a large-scale mural in montreal that seems to warp the street

each year, montreal’s musée des beaux-arts (MBAM; montreal museum of fine arts) calls for proposals for an ephemeral installation on the avenue de musée. this year’s winner is canadian design firm, NÓS, who has created moving dunes, an experiential mirage that extends from the museum’s current exhibition, from africa to the americas: face-to-face picasso, past and present.

images by olivier bousquet, eloa defly, raphaël thibodeau, alex lesage, and charles laurence proulx

for moving dunes, NÓS referenced the plastic approach of cubist painters who questioned the role of perspective in visual representation. in particular the concept of anamorphosis, which is the distortion of the subject reconfiguring itself according to the position of the body in space. through this process, the public installation introduces to the public the essence of this approach playfully. by manipulating the street surface, large ripples are generated, recalling the features of a body or a face.

through a combination of curvy lines and sand-toned colors, moving dunes invites guests to move around the installation and observe how carefully-placed reflective spheres and geometric shapes amplify the patterns and multiply the points of view. as the observer moves, the street transforms, shapes are reversed, and the ground comes alive. among the challenges encountered were the development of a concept in relation to the theme of the exhibition, the activation of a pedestrian public space while allowing the passage of emergency vehicles, and the creation of an experience with high media impact on a limited budget.

project info:

name: moving dunes
studio: NÓS

photography: olivier bousquet, eloa defly, raphaël thibodeau, alex lesage, and charles laurence proulx

location: avenue du musee, montreal
client: montreal museum of fine arts
designers: charles laurence proulx, gil hardy, negar adibpour, jean-benoit trudelle
project manager: charles laurence proulx
collaborators: mu
budget: $50 000